This invention relates to a learning support system for presenting a learner with questions appropriate to a degree of understanding of a learner and his/her skill level.
It is said that the presenting the learner with practice questions appropriate to the degree of understanding of the learner and his/her skill level increases motivation of the learner and enhances a learning effect. Further, there is a demand for “more personalized education” that provides detailed instruction suited to individual skills of the learner, which is represented by a tutorial cram school.
In order to provide such personalized learning appropriate to the learner, for example, JP 2003-66828 A discloses a method of determining a degree of difficulty of sentences in foreign languages in which the degree of difficulty or the like of each word is found based on data stored in a textbook database and the degree of difficulty is used to determine the degree of difficulty of arbitrary English sentences to be analyzed.
Further, JP 2002-108199 A discloses a learning testing method for providing the user with a comment and creating the next learning test based on a result of comparison between an answering time required for the user to input an answer and a reference answering time set in advance.
Further, JP 2007-271886 A discloses an ability value estimation method in which, in an examination using a computer, an answering time, which includes a question grasping time for grasping a question and a question answering time for answering to the question, is measured to estimate an ability value of an examinee based on the question grasping time, the question answering time, and correct/wrong of the question.
Further, JP 2006-309084 A discloses a certificate examination evaluation method in which, based on a selected time limit and answers to examination questions on an answer sheet, a correct answer count corresponding to the answer is detected and evaluation data is extracted from the correct answer count and the time limit.
Further, JP 2003-156996 A discloses a learning support system for acquiring answer information, analyzing the learner's ability based on the answer information, and distributing additional questions suited to each learner's individual abilities or evaluations of the learner based on analysis results.
The above-mentioned methods disclosed in JP 2003-66828 A, JP 2002-108199 A, JP 2007-271886 A, JP 2006-309084 A, and JP 2003-156996 A have the following problems.
For example, JP 2003-66828 A discloses a method using not only a correct answer rate but also a vocabulary level of a vocabulary used in an educational material. However, the vocabulary level differs between persons who have the same English ability. For example, the learner at a lower level may know a word that is unknown to the learner at an upper level, and vice versa. Therefore, with the method based on the vocabulary level, it is difficult to provide questions suited to individual skills.
Further, JP 2002-108199 A, JP 2007-271886 A, and JP 2006-309084 A discloses a method of estimating the ability by using the answering time. However, it is difficult to distinguish between a case where the learner happens to give a correct answer by randomly choosing an answer option and a case where the learner gives a correct answer with confidence. Further, it is conceivable that the learner who has memory of the past questions and the correct answers thereto may answer based on what he/she remembers. Therefore, with the method disclosed in JP 2002-108199 A, JP 2007-271886 A, and JP 2006-309084 A, it is difficult to measure actual language ability.
Further, JP 2003-156996 A discloses a method involving creating an educational purpose ability map and the degree of difficulty and creating a correspondence table thereof with respect to each question. However, an enormous amount of time and labor is required to create the questions and the map, and there is also a problem that only English materials created artificially for questions are used, which does not allow use of raw English materials that can be obtained from magazines, news, and the like.
In other words, the conventional methods cannot sufficiently achieve improvement in learning efficiency of the learner.